e39 540 touing
Discussion
Bill Carr said:
Expect to spend lots on petrol!
Ah come on, they arent that bad.... sure around town they are crap (its a 4.4 V8!) but mixed driving you should get 22-24MPG and a steady run should see 26-28MPG..... well if you drive like a nun of course.
Other than that they are a bit of a bargain. Stonking performance, reasonable handling (all 540's in the UK came with M-tech suspension) and pretty reliable too. Why not?
Egbert Nobacon said:
You need to speak to Silverback Mike - he's had a few of these & changes his cars more often than his pants ....
Buy one, the 540 is a marvellous car, fuel economy isn't that bad, figures as above.
Make sure you check the waterpump, they are a weak point, reach into the engine bay, give it a tug up and down, it shouldn't move, if it does it will need a new one.
Other than that, that's about it.
Fantastic cars.
Well I've got an E34 540i, and that does 28mpg on the motorway-once got it up to a genuine 30mpg on 1 long summer run to Scotland. Brimmed the 17.6 gallon tank, reset the trip meter, and did 485 miles before the low fuel light came on at 1.5 gallons left.
I wasn't driving like a nun either-kept to below 80 on the motorway, around 70-75mph at 2000-2200rpm, and drove anticipating/reading the road far ahead, and changed down the autobox manually to fully utilise the 'fuel shutoff on the overrun' facility on all modern BMW's from the early 80's.
Round town on a cold day with a cold engine it's a different story entirely-expect sub 20mpg. With the usual mix of driving conditons I get around 22-24mpg, as the others say on here.
Will guzzle if you toe it round town, but you're wasting a car like this constraining it to urban mayhem & traffic jams.
Other than that it's actually hard to think of a better all-rounder than the 540i touring, as it can be the hod-rod, the effortless continent cruiser, the practical family holdall, and a car you can turn up to any social occasion in without it ever being out of place.
Also, because many people are terrified of the possible running costs of these cars, prices plummet on the used market so they're fantastic value as well.
I have both an E34 540i saloon, and an E34 525i touring, and eventually will replace them both with a single E39 540i touring, although not for another year or 2 as I wish to extract as much life as possible from my current E34's!
So yes, I'd most certainly go for the E39 540i Touring-they're getting cheaper by the day!
Some people say the V8 E39s don't handle as sharply as the 6-pot E39's, as they have the steering box instead of the 6-pot's steering rack.
However, to qualify this, it's like saying the 6-pot has superb steering, whereas the V8 only has 'very good' steering!
Draw your own conclusions
I wasn't driving like a nun either-kept to below 80 on the motorway, around 70-75mph at 2000-2200rpm, and drove anticipating/reading the road far ahead, and changed down the autobox manually to fully utilise the 'fuel shutoff on the overrun' facility on all modern BMW's from the early 80's.
Round town on a cold day with a cold engine it's a different story entirely-expect sub 20mpg. With the usual mix of driving conditons I get around 22-24mpg, as the others say on here.
Will guzzle if you toe it round town, but you're wasting a car like this constraining it to urban mayhem & traffic jams.
Other than that it's actually hard to think of a better all-rounder than the 540i touring, as it can be the hod-rod, the effortless continent cruiser, the practical family holdall, and a car you can turn up to any social occasion in without it ever being out of place.
Also, because many people are terrified of the possible running costs of these cars, prices plummet on the used market so they're fantastic value as well.
I have both an E34 540i saloon, and an E34 525i touring, and eventually will replace them both with a single E39 540i touring, although not for another year or 2 as I wish to extract as much life as possible from my current E34's!
So yes, I'd most certainly go for the E39 540i Touring-they're getting cheaper by the day!
Some people say the V8 E39s don't handle as sharply as the 6-pot E39's, as they have the steering box instead of the 6-pot's steering rack.
However, to qualify this, it's like saying the 6-pot has superb steering, whereas the V8 only has 'very good' steering!
Draw your own conclusions
Thanks for the replies I am looking at one tommorow (112,000 miles), I only do about 7,000 miles a year so fuel consumption is not to much a concern(I also have a tvr 5.0 and last two tankfulls I am averaging 12.5mpg), was more concerned about what could go wrong , thanks again for the help
Colin
Colin
Great cars.
I have had one for a year now. I get about 25mpg on the motorway at about 90ish cruise. Not a lot around town.
The car is an 02 and has done 120000 miles now. I have all the bills for it and nothing has gone wrong at all apart from an occasionally faulty exhaust sensor. When this goes it is about £130 to fix, so no biggie.
The car is effortlessly quick, rather than just quick (no need to rev hard at all). Had a run against an RS6 in it a while back and whilst the RS6 was definately quicker, the difference was much less than expected between 30-130.
The handling is good, not as well balanced as a 530 sport (had one recently, a saloon though), but still a lot better than my previous merc (also much better built). The 530 felt disapointing speed wise after the 540 though. Both autos.
I would reccomend an auto in pref to the manual as it suits the car very well. I generally prefer manuals.
I have had one for a year now. I get about 25mpg on the motorway at about 90ish cruise. Not a lot around town.
The car is an 02 and has done 120000 miles now. I have all the bills for it and nothing has gone wrong at all apart from an occasionally faulty exhaust sensor. When this goes it is about £130 to fix, so no biggie.
The car is effortlessly quick, rather than just quick (no need to rev hard at all). Had a run against an RS6 in it a while back and whilst the RS6 was definately quicker, the difference was much less than expected between 30-130.
The handling is good, not as well balanced as a 530 sport (had one recently, a saloon though), but still a lot better than my previous merc (also much better built). The 530 felt disapointing speed wise after the 540 though. Both autos.
I would reccomend an auto in pref to the manual as it suits the car very well. I generally prefer manuals.
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